What to do when a First PREMIER account holder dies

No. The balance is an unsecured debt that survives the cardholder and is owed by the estate. Under First PREMIER's cardholder agreement, the obligation is binding on the cardholder, the estate, and the personal representatives. If the estate has enough assets, the balance is paid as a creditor claim; if the estate is insolvent, an unsecured card balance may go partially or wholly unpaid, and heirs are generally not personally responsible for it.

No. A credit card is a debt, not an asset, so it carries no payable-on-death, transfer-on-death, or beneficiary designation, and nothing is paid out to a survivor or a trust. When the cardholder dies, the balance becomes an obligation of the estate, resolved through the estate's creditor-claim process rather than transferred to anyone.

Call the First PREMIER Bank / PREMIER Bankcard Customer Service Department at 1-800-987-5521 to report the death, stop further charges, and request the payoff balance. Reporting promptly matters: the cardholder agreement keeps charges valid and binding on the estate until the bank receives actual written notice of death. Follow up in writing to First PREMIER Bank, P.O. Box 5528, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5528, enclosing a copy of the death certificate and the account number.

Start with a copy of the death certificate and the PREMIER Bankcard account number so the bank can match the notice to the account. To establish authority over the estate, First PREMIER may require Letters of Testamentary or Letters of Administration (certified court-issued documents showing legal authority over the estate) or a small estate affidavit, which is used when the estate's total assets fall under the dollar limit set by state statute.

No. An authorized user is a person the cardholder allowed to use the card but is not the account owner and is not personally liable for the debt. The authority to use the card ends at the cardholder's death, so an authorized user should stop using it. A surviving joint account holder or co-applicant, by contrast, remains fully responsible for the balance.

Send written notice of the death, with a copy of the death certificate, to First PREMIER Bank, P.O. Box 5528, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5528, including the deceased cardholder's name and account number. Payments toward the balance go to First PREMIER Bank, PO Box 1348, Sioux Falls, SD 57101-1348, and billing-error disputes to First PREMIER Bank, P.O. Box 5524, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5524. Confirm the payoff amount at 1-800-987-5521 before paying.

Confirm the estate's obligations before paying anything from personal funds. A credit-card balance is an unsecured debt paid from estate assets in the order the state's probate law establishes for creditor claims; paying it ahead of higher-priority claims can be a problem if the estate is short of assets. If the cardholder bought PREMIER Credit Protection or a similar optional product, check whether a death benefit applies to the balance before paying it.